Press release

Italy survive Russian charge in five-set thriller at Men's U21

Italian players celebration after victory over Russia in a fantastic five setter in Pool D of the Men's U21 World Championship

Izmir, Turkey, August 26, 2013 – Italy surprised pool leaders Russia with a fantastic performance to hang them over the first defeat in an exciting two hours five setter 3-2 (23-25, 27-25, 30-28, 11-25, 15-12) in Pool D match at FIVB Men's U21 World Championship held at Ataturk Hall in Izmir, Turkey on Monday.

Although Russia suffered their first defeat, they kept their leadership of the pool with 3-1 win loss ratio, gaining 9 point (1 point ahead of France). Italy improved to 2-2, but stayed in the fourth position.

Luigi Randazzo with amazing 33 points topped the match scorers and had the best scoring performance in the tournament so far, including 4 aces and 1 block. Luca Borgogno followed him with 15 points.

Victor Poletaev led Russia's scorers with 26 points including 3 dying blocks and 3 aces followed by Ivan Demakov (15).

Needing at least two sets to secure the top of the pool ahead of France, the Russian team played their rhythm in the first set to win hardly 25-23 after they showed the well known blocking activity beside using their point machine Victor Poletaev to hammer a lot of spikes.

Italy's engine Luigi Randazzo worked very hard to give his team the upper hand for two sets where they advanced 2-1 after 27-25 and 30-28 set wins.

Russia came back to save their situation and gained the fourth set widely 25-11, before Italy played their best to win the tiebreak in style 15-12.

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